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ISU PSYCH 280 - Social Psychology versus the Law
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PSYCH 280 1nd Edition Lecture 14 Outline of Last Lecture I. Social Psychology and the Lawa. Availability biasb. Behavior Deviationsc. Representativeness Base-Rate NeglectII. Base-Rate Neglect: PolygraphIII. Movie: Eyewitness TestimoniesOutline of Current Lecture I. Social Psychology versus the LawII. Assumptions of the legal systemIII. MemoryIV. Eyewitness TestimoniesV. Better Line-UpsCurrent LectureI. Social Psychology versus the LawLaw is doctrinal. Law is based on beliefs, teachings, traditions, and consistency. Social psychology, on the other hand, is empirical. Social psychology is based on proof, experiments, data, and statistics. Therefore, these two ideas butt heads because they are based off different principles.II. Assumptions of the Legal SystemThe legal system runs off some very important assumptions:a. Jurors can process complex information. This however, isn’t always the case. Sometimes,jurors have a hard time following the information and keeping up with all of the evidence that is presented during a trial.b. People can withhold opinions. Again, this isn’t the case—people form opinions from the minute they walk into the court.c. People can “erase” information from their minds. This is also not the case—if a witness blurts something out and the judge commands the jury to “not let that this information affect your decision,” chances are, the jury will remember the information.d. People can and will apply the law.These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.e. Jurors can and will report their own biases. This is not the case. If asked who will let the race of the suspect impact their decision, no juror is going to openly admit their bias.f. Witnesses can report accurately on things they have witnessed.III. MemoryLegal systems and professionals operate on the idea that human memory is like a video recording system: we record everything we see and “store” it in the form of a video tape. If we forget thing, it is because we have “lost” that particular videotape. This is not true! Memory is nowhere near close to a video recording system, and this is why:a. Our perception is interpretativeb. Expectations effect our processingc. Not everything that we see and perceive is stored away in memory. Often, we record the gist of things, but not the details.d. Memory is a construction—not a reply. Memories can be affected/influenced during the perceiving, storage, and retrieval process.IV. Eyewitness TestimoniesEyewitness Testimonies are very persuasive, but not very reliable. Since memory is not a definite thing, witnesses often will “construct” their memories and fill in details about the crime/event. Often, the witness will say they saw things that they couldn’t possibly see from their perspective during the event.V. Better Line-UpsDuring a police photo line-up, eyewitnesses are at risk for the relative-judgment process. The relative-judgment process states that if the perpetrator is not in the line-up, they will pick the person that most resembles the perpetrator. However, the police can do a few things to promote better line-ups:a. Make the line-ups with one suspect, the rest have to be known-innocent fillers.b. The fillers have to fit the eyewitness’s description of the culprit.c. Police must warn the eyewitness that the culprit may or may not be in the line-up.d. Police also must use the double-blind line-up procedure: the person who administers the line-up shouldn’t know which member of the line-up is the suspect or which members are the


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ISU PSYCH 280 - Social Psychology versus the Law

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